Forgive me if I've already missed a thread here about this but I was wondering if there were any plans to re-issue the movie in an unedited form? I suspect I already know the answer to this given it's (ahem) troubled history but having the 20 minutes minutes that were cut put back in would make for a fascinating watch.

Is any of this footage doing the rounds? I know the opinion is that Warner Bros just wanted to bury the film but they still make it available on DVD - even if it is no-frills..._________________Paul

I will watch Uma Thurman in anything. She looked fantastic in the tights. Around 45+ minutes were cut from the film so this would be a very interesting view. Think Once Upon a Time in America in the 2hr. cut that everyone hated compared to the 4hr. cut that every one loves.

I do talk in great detail about The Avengers movie in my upcoming book Bowler Hat and Kinky Boots and having a copy of the shooting script I have to say that there is a lot less missing than everyone thinks. To be honest the amount of missing footage is small compared to what various places on web state. The whole thing about missing footage has been greatly exaggerated.

I do talk in great detail about The Avengers movie in my upcoming book Bowler Hat and Kinky Boots and having a copy of the shooting script I have to say that there is a lot less missing than everyone thinks. To be honest the amount of missing footage is small compared to what various places on web state. The whole thing about missing footage has been greatly exaggerated.

Thanks for the post! I look forward to reading your book too!

I also read that Michael Kamen did the original score and then walked away when they didn't care for it. I would LOVE to hear his original score for the film. I'm listening to the McNeely score at the moment...

Here is an excerpt of a Michael Kamen interview published in a French movie mag (called "Starfix") in September 1998. The interviewer: Didier Lepr?Ye. (roughly translated from French by MightyMcT):

Interviewer: "- What happened exactly on THE AVENGERS?"

Kamen: "It's a long story! First, Jeremiah chose me after having seen 101 DALMATIANS (the live version). He wanted the same tongue-in-cheek tone for his movie. We talked a lot, about the project, the actors, the music, etc. I then started to work on the project around September/October 1997. I had lots of ideas. In December, we did a demo with the very first cut. Everything was fine."

Interviewer: "Did you re-use the Laurie Johnson theme?"

Kamen: "At first, I didn't want to. But the people from Decca made me change my mind. So I created a main theme mockingly inspired by Laurie Johnson's work. His theme was there, but with a twist, some more crazyness, especially in the percussions."

Interviewer: "And how did you get fired?"

Kamen: "The sneak previews, always the sneak previews! First, in the States, the producers showed some dailies to a targeted audience: it went wrong, the movie was not working. There was maybe one hour worth of footage, with the broad lines of my score played by an american orchestra. That's when the producers freaked out and decided to come to England to do the real test. It occured in mid-March, in London. There, the previews went even worst: they were disastrous!

"Interviewer: "So what happened next?"

Kamen: "From that point, all things were rushed. I had to cancel all the concerts I had scheduled mid-March at the Carnegie Hall in New York to re-score the picture. Jeremiah now wanted a closer identification to the original Laurie Johnson's music, and to the TV series, but I was not particularly interested in doing that. THE AVENGERS score ... turned into a James Bond movie score, see? In the Bond movies, I was always able to predict when the Monty Norman theme would play, because the musical and scriptwriting approach was so obvious. On LICENCE TO KILL, I tried to play that tongue-in-cheek, but, again, they did not like it and made me change it. On THE AVENGERS, what they wanted was: some Michael Kamen, then the Laurie Johnson theme, then some more Michael Kamen ... there was no room for identity, and certainly no room for playing it tongue-in-cheek. Yet I managed to rewrite my score, for a new cut of the movie, which was faster and dryer. Unofficial recording sessions took place here in London, then we came back during April. Then, the clash. Nobody understood my approach, or should I say noboby tried to understand it..."

Interviewer: "And you finally decided to walk away?"

Kamen: "Sort of. I'm not good at pastiche. My job is not to do scores "in the style of...". There are other composers out there who do that very well. But I feel somehow bitter about THE AVENGERS ... I'm sure it will be a huge hit, no matter what. Sean Connery is very good in it and the audience will just love the new Steed/Peel. With my non-stereotyped score, it simply would have been even greater!"

So many ways that movie could have been better, instead of the dire piece of 90s cinema that it is..._________________"It's a conflict of science and humanity! Equations, isotherms...I have a dynamic too."

Mick LaSalle, of the San Francisco Chronicle, warned against poor editing and direction, explaining,

There's.......some business involving a dead ringer for Emma going around causing trouble, and there's some mention of the word "cloning." Then all talk of that is dropped. Everything is dropped. After a slow opening, the 90-minute movie jolts into climax mode. What happened to the middle? Clearly, this wasn't just edited but gutted. No doubt they did us all a favor, but it doesn't help. Instead of just being a bad picture, the missing middle makes The Avengers a bad and weird and strangely off picture. One example: There's never a moment when Emma and Steed realize who the villain is. At first, they don't know. Next they're in a titanic battle to the death. At one point Emma is shackled and floating around in a hot-air balloon. I don't know how she got there. I must have blinked.[4]

Due to internal wrangling at Warner Brothers, the decision was made to vastly cut down the running time after test screenings, reducing the 115-minute film to 87 minutes, sacrificing much coherence and continuity in the process. Key scenes removed included the opening sequence in which "Mrs. Peel" infiltrates and destroys the Prospero science installation; early trailers included the scene where she says the words "How now brown cow" in a false telephone box to gain admittance. The movie was originally scored by composer Michael Kamen, who included the original Avengers theme; however he was unable to re-score the film after the radical editing, so was forced to drop out. The recut version of the film was scored by Joel McNeely. The original shooting script was used for the film's novelisation and includes all the material shot and then removed from the film. The original cut has yet to surface; Warners are apparently not interested in releasing a director's cut or special edition in any form, even though director Jeremiah Chechik has offered to recut the film for nothing.

It was such a round failure that I'm not surprised Warner just wants to forget about it. Really one of the worst misfires of the 1990s, with two (at the time) popular stars that might have made it worth our while. I still find it difficult to believe that even with the added footage it would be able to surmount the obstacles of Thurman's miscasting and Fiennes' total lack of direction, but it might have at least been a more coherent film. As an Avengers adaptation, it's awful, but as a film it's even worse._________________"It's a conflict of science and humanity! Equations, isotherms...I have a dynamic too."

I do talk in great detail about The Avengers movie in my upcoming book Bowler Hat and Kinky Boots and having a copy of the shooting script I have to say that there is a lot less missing than everyone thinks. To be honest the amount of missing footage is small compared to what various places on web state. The whole thing about missing footage has been greatly exaggerated.

I do talk in great detail about The Avengers movie in my upcoming book Bowler Hat and Kinky Boots and having a copy of the shooting script I have to say that there is a lot less missing than everyone thinks. To be honest the amount of missing footage is small compared to what various places on web state. The whole thing about missing footage has been greatly exaggerated.

Is the book available for preorder?

Lando, yes the book can be pre-ordered from the Telos website www.telos.co.uk

There is also a thread running for it on the merchandise section.

Iím aware of Michael Kamenís involvement in the film, but are you aware of Nicholas Meyerís involvement?

I do talk in great detail about The Avengers movie in my upcoming book Bowler Hat and Kinky Boots and having a copy of the shooting script I have to say that there is a lot less missing than everyone thinks. To be honest the amount of missing footage is small compared to what various places on web state. The whole thing about missing footage has been greatly exaggerated.

Is the book available for preorder?

Lando, yes the book can be pre-ordered from the Telos website www.telos.co.uk

There is also a thread running for it on the merchandise section.

Iím aware of Michael Kamenís involvement in the film, but are you aware of Nicholas Meyerís involvement?